


The Killing Blow

by canufeelthemagictonight



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie), Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie) Missing Moment, Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie) Spoilers, But it's not real so yay I guess?, Everyone is dead except Tony, F/M, Gen, Not Really Character Death, Tony Angst, Tony Feels, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Tony's vision continued, Tony-centric, Yeah quite a lot of people are mentioned in this one
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-24
Updated: 2015-06-24
Packaged: 2018-04-04 00:06:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,392
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4119487
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/canufeelthemagictonight/pseuds/canufeelthemagictonight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>He could've--no, he</i> should've <i>saved these people, he's</i> Iron Man <i> for God's sake, the whole freaking</i> point <i>of the freaking suit in the freaking</i> first <i>place was to protect the world, and now here's the whole world dead because of him.</i></p><p>Because Tony Stark's Wanda-induced vision went <i>far</i> beyond the Avengers.</p><p>Missing moment from Age of Ultron. Heavy on the Pepperony.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Killing Blow

**Author's Note:**

> So I liked Age of Ultron overall, but one of my few gripes was that Tony's vision was slightly lacking. I mean, no Pepper? No Rhodey? The Avengers aren't the only ones he cares about, you know!
> 
> So I wrote this. Hope you like it.

"Why...didn't...you...do...more?"

The last words of Captain America ring in Tony’s ears as he backs away from the bodies of his team. _This isn’t real,_ he frantically tells himself. _Capsicle’s fine, I had him on the comlink a while back squawking "language" into my ear._ His eyes dart around the corpses like a cornered rat. _Bruce, Widow, Barton, Point Break…they’re fine, they’re all fine, they gotta be._

But even as his brain races to convince his gut that what lies before him is no more than a nightmare, sounds of gunfire shatter the morbid silence.

Tony whirls around, his hand instinctively raised as if to blast the source of the gunfire out of existence. A split second later, he realizes that a) he is not wearing the Iron Man suit and b) there is no one in sight, with or without a weapon. 

No one, that is, except for the corpses.

They’re everywhere now, covering the ground like some grotesque snowstorm. Hundreds—no, _thousands— _of bodies, appearing out of nowhere, as far as the eye can see. The scene resembles a nightmare version of the apocalypse.__

And the sinking feeling in the pit of Tony’s stomach lets him know who’s responsible.

He squeezes his eyes shut. _A hallucination, it’s just a hallucination, it’s gonna go away, make it go away, damit!_ Eyes still closed to black out the horror before him, he takes one tentative step forward…

…and nearly trips over someone’s face.

Upon regaining his balance, he opens his eyes, exhales, and takes a good look at the corpse in question. Obviously military, if the jacket is any indication. Dark skin and dark hair and bloodshot eyes and _oh please no…_

"Rhodey?"

The man who once was War Machine stares blankly back at him.

Tony forces back a sob as he kneels beside his fallen friend. A single word— _no—_ echoes through his mind like a broken recording of the worst song in the world. He attempts to suppress the mounting grief, clinging to the belief that this isn’t real, that the world wouldn’t dare take Rhodey from him, that all his friends are fine…but then he sees that _stupid_ photo clenched in Rhodey’s cold hand and all bets are off.

Tony, Rhodey, and Pepper, in a time before the Avengers, War Machine, or even Iron Man—when Tony Stark was still a name synonymous with weapons production. They’re standing outside the Leaning Tower. Tony’s giving both his friends bunny ears, Rhodey’s cracking up for no reason, and Pepper’s flashing her patented "I’m surrounded by idiots" look at the camera. Tony vaguely remembers e-mailing that photo to Rhodey last month in a "ha-ha, look how stupid we were" kind of way, but seeing the thing _now_ of all times feels like a slap in the face.

He hates it, he hates it, he _hates_ that dam picture so much that he snatches it from Rhodey’s hand and tears it to pieces. How _dare_ it flaunt the good times, how _dare_ it mock what used to be when it knows dam well the days of bunny ears and grins are effectively over, how dare that wretched Polaroid _exist!_

Oh, what does it matter, Rhodey is _dead_ and he, Tony, wasn’t there to save him, it was _his_ responsibility to protect everyone but he freaking _didn’t,_ Tony Stark aka Iron Man _let his friends die…_

Wait.

_Pepper._

The name travels like a comet through his nervous system as he springs to his feet and half-runs-half-stumbles away from Rhodey's body. Almost in a panic, he starts going through the other corpses, Pepper's face stamped on his consciousness. _If they've killed her too..._

He does not find her. What he does find, however, chills him through the heart he sometimes forgets he has.

Nick Fury's eyepatch is gone, replaced by a bloody hole. Maria Hill lies next to him, her chest riddled with bullets. Only half of Happy Hogan's head exists. Helen Cho, even in death, clutches what can only be her research. Some guy Tony recognizes from college is the victim of a headshot. One of his old one-night stands is bleeding out from multiple stab wounds. Even the President is there, his limbs bent at odd angles, his face in the ground.

Those he doesn't recognize are just as haunting. A woman curled around her child, most likely in a futile effort to protect him. A teenager, his hands in the air, his T-shirt covered with blood. A curly-haired scientist holding a cracked vial in one hand and a half-eaten sandwich in the other. An elderly woman slumped in her wheelchair, who would've appeared to be sleeping if not for the bullet hole directly above her heart.

Every face, every corpse, every person he failed to save sends a new rush of guilt through Tony's veins. He could've—no, he _should've_ saved these people, he's _Iron Man_ for God's sake, the whole freaking _point_ of the freaking suit in the freaking _first_ place was to protect the world, and now here's the whole world dead because of him. He's _failed_ them.

 _Cap's right,_ he thinks morosely, the smog stinging his eyes. _I should have done more._

"Tony?"

Even through his haze of blame, he recognizes her voice. He turns.

Pepper stands among the bodies, a baseball bat gripped tightly in her shaking hands. Her once-white blouse is caked with dirt, and her strawberry-blonde hair is a tangled mess that sticks out in all directions, but even so, Tony has never been happier to see her. 

Alive.

_Pepper's alive._

He rushes toward her, laughing and crying and mentally thanking whatever God may or may not be up there that at least he's still got her. She's alive and he's alive and they very well might be the only two people left in the world, but as long as the girl he can't live without is still walking and breathing and blinking and _living,_ he can be as close to okay as the circumstances allow.

"Tony!" Her eyes sparkle with tears as he draws closer to her. "Oh, thank goodness, I was so worried, I thought—"

But he's barely come within touching distance when the gunfire interrupts them.

Before Tony has time to react, Pepper's screaming in agony, blood mixing with the grime on her blouse. She drops her bat and falls to her knees, clutching her chest where the bullet tore through her.

This time a _chorus_ of "no"s ring through Tony's head. He, too, drops to his knees, pulling her close to him, hoping against hope that he can somehow keep her alive. "Help!" he shouts to the wind. "We need help over here!"

No one comes. But then again, why should they?

"Pepper..." He can tell she's fading, but Tony Stark is nothing if not stubborn. "C'mon, baby, don't do this to me. Hold on, _please_ hold on...we'll find a way to fix this...you're gonna pull through...you gotta pull through!..."

She shudders against him, clearly struggling to keep her eyes open. "To...ny..."

And then, exactly three seconds after choking out his name, she takes one last shaky breath and goes limp in his arms.

"Pepper!" he screams, though he knows it's too late, he's already lost her and the world might as well collapse in on itself and swallow him whole for all he cares. "Pepper, _please..."_

Her lifeless eyes stare back at him, all sparks of Pepper gone, reduced to accusing pools of blue. _You did this,_ they seem to whisper. _Your fault. Yours._

The world is a tearful blur. His cries have become animalistic; he can feel his sanity collapsing like a house of cards. And why shouldn't it? She _was_ his sanity, his reason, his motivation for _everything,_ and now—

_You said you'd protect me, Tony._

"I tried," he whispers, watching with red eyes as the scene slowly fades away.

_But it wasn't enough. All your iron suits and iron legions...nowhere near enough._

And as he drifts back to reality, Tony makes the world a silent promise:

He _won't_ let this nightmare come true. He'll spare no expense, pull out all the stops, cross every line there is if he has to. Anything to keep the world—and, by extension, the people he loves—happy and alive.

_Anything._


End file.
